Grace Bible Fellowship

Doctrinal Basis and Statement of Faith 

   Eph 2:8-10

8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.

10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

 

 

THE BIBLE:  The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired of God, and are inerrant in the original writings, and are of supreme and final authority in faith and practice (II Tim. 3:16,17; II Peter 1:20,21).

 

GOD:  There is one God eternally existing in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deut. 6:14; John 1:1; 14:16; II Cor. 13:14).

 

JESUS CHRIST:  As a man, He was begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary and is true man and True God (Mt. 1:23; Luke 1:32,35; Phil. 2:6,7; Col. 2:9).

 

HOLY SPIRIT:  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead who has been sent to reprove the world of sin (John 16:7-11) and to regenerate all believers in Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5); to seal the believer in the Body of Christ (I Cor. 12:13); to lead the believer into truth (I Cor. 2:1); to make temples of God out of their bodies by indwelling them (I Cor. 6:19,20).  It is the will of God that the believer be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18); walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-18); and bear the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25).

 

MAN:  The first man, Adam, was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26); but fell through disobedience (Rom. 5:12) and thereby incurred the penalty of both spiritual and physical death, which is separation from God (Rom. 6:23; Gal. 2:17; Eph. 4:18).  All of Adam’s posterity have been born with the sin nature (Rom. 7:18; Eph. 2:1-3) which renders us powerless to please God apart from God’s gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17, 18; 8:8).

 

SALVATION:  The Lord Jesus Christ died according to the Scriptures (I Cor. 15:1-4) as a representative and substitute for man.  All who receive Him by faith, as having taken their place, are justified freely by His grace on the grounds of His shed blood (Rom. 3:24,25).  They then are born of the Holy Spirit and become a child of God (Rom. 8:16).  All saved are eternally secure in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:9; 3:1-4; Phil. 1:16; Eph. 1:13).

 

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST:  Jesus Christ arose from the dead BODILY and ascended into Heaven where He became the Head of all things to the Church, which is His Body.  He ever lives as Advocate to keep eternally saved all who come to God by faith through Him (Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20-23; 4:30).

 

SANCTIFICATION:  Every child of God is perfectly and eternally sanctified before God by merit of the finished work of Christ (Heb. 10:10,14; I Cor. 1:30; 6:9-11).  Whereas this standing in no way depends upon the daily manner of life, the believer is expected, as his reasonable service, to live a surrendered Spirit-filled life to the glory of God (Rom. 12:1,2; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 5:18).  We hold that the teaching of Lordship Salvation is absent from the Scripture and is a lie of Satan.

 

THE CHURCH:  The Church of this dispensation is called the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22,23).  All believers, upon receiving Christ as Savior, are baptized into that Church by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:13).  Every member of the Body is thus brought into a vital relationship and ministry with the Head (Christ) and every other member of the body (Eph. 4:15,16).  We believe that the Church had its historical beginning with the proclamation of spiritual blindness upon the nation of Israel by the Apostle Paul (Acts 13:4-11; Rom. 11:25).

 

LORD’S SUPPER:  The Lord’s Supper is the communion of the body and blood of Christ which is voluntarily observed by believers in publicly partaking, in a symbolic manner, of broken bread and poured out juice in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the means of declaring His death, “till He comes” (I Cor. 11:23-26).

 

PRAYER:  Prayer, both as means of communions and petition, is the privilege and obligation of every believer.  Prayer must always be according to the will of God and according to His Word Rightly Divided (Rom. 8:26,27; Phil. 4:6,7; I Thes. 5:17).

 

BAPTISM:  There is only ONE baptism for members of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:5).  This baptism is administered by the Holy Spirit and not by human hands and results in the permanent union of the believer as a member of the Church which is His Body (Col. 2:11,12).  The ceremonial baptisms of the Bible are related to God’s earthly kingdom purpose concerning Israel (Acts 2:38; 13:24) and have no place for the Church of this dispensation (I Cor. 1:17).  The practice of water baptism is held to be wrong for this day.

 

THE MINISTRY:  Evangelists and Teaching Pastors have been given to the Church for the purpose of leading and edifying the Saints for the work of the ministry.  Each member of the Body of Christ is called upon to effectually work so as to make increase of the body into the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:11-16) and to propagate the Gospel of Salvation to all mankind (Rom. 16:25,26;  II Tim. 4:1,2).

 

FUTURE THINGS:  The blessed hope of the Church is the imminent, person, pre-tribulation return of Christ to rapture into glory all members of His Body, both those who are alive and those who have died, forever to be with the Lord and shall stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ (Titus 2:13; I Thes. 4:13-18; I Cor. 15:51,52; Rom. 14:10; II Cor. 5:10).  The Second Coming of Christ will occur after the time of the Great Tribulation upon the earth.  Christ will return to earth in power and great glory to reign as King of Kings over Israel and the Nations (Rev. 19:11; 21:6).  All the unsaved are without hope (Eph. 2:12).  They will be raised bodily to stand before the Great white Throne at the final judgment and will be cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the Second Death, where they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:10-15).